Hi folks. Daren Otten here. This is an update associated with your board meetings from…
Hi folks, Daren Otten, Superintendent-President here at Copper Mountain College with your update from last week’s board meeting.
The board meeting did start with a closed session where the trustees went through several items around labor negotiations, some pending litigation against the district and ultimately some public employee discipline dismissal release. And coming out of that session, the Board of Trustees did announce that they fully separated from one employee.
Moving into regular session, the regular reports obviously brought forward from all the folks, but I really wanted to mention the student showcase, Louis Medina, who brought samples of his artwork and probably just as importantly, a narrative of really his commitment, his passion for art, for education, for supporting others. One of the most humble individuals I’ve ever heard from with some amazing, amazing artwork. But I really want to thank Louis for coming and sharing his story and also, you know, Chloe (Allred) for nominating him. It was really inspirational. And I’ll tell you, his artwork is very, very impressive.
The meeting continued with just obviously the normal reports from there, but then also wanted to highlight specifically the first read of the institutional self-evaluation report that we’re prioritizing right now for the campus. There’s been several communications pushed out for folks so that they can provide feedback. Now where we’re at in this process is that obviously last week was the first read by the Board of Trustees. We are still taking feedback all the way through really, the end of this month in preparation for the second read next month where the board will be asked to act specifically to allow us to submit that the following month so that we’re on time for the July 1 submission date and then obviously in preparation for the fall.
It’s something that I just want to really shout out, all of the folks who’ve had their fingerprints on this. And there’s been a pile. This is a process that has lasted well over a year and a half now, but specifically, you know, Mike Reese, LeAnne, Jane, all of the standard leads, all of the folks who’ve had their fingerprints, all of these things, have really done a lot of work. And now I’m asking for everybody else’s help. So what we can use help on right now, take a look at the document. Specifically go through those links. There’s a pile of them and we just want to make sure they’re right because we don’t want to send something to ACCJC that’s missing a link or a link doesn’t quite work or there’s a piece of narrative missing, so if you noticed any of those things, please let us know so that we can move forward, fix that, and then look forward to the visit here in the fall.
Additionally, Sandy Smith presented the presentation called The History of CMC. And this was done partially as kind of continuing onboarding for our trustees, but also as an opportunity for all of us to be reminded of how we came to be, how we’ve had such amazing community support throughout the entire history of not only Copper Mountain Campus as part of the COD district, but really as we separated, we’ve continued to see true support from a community like nowhere else I’ve ever seen. And I’m, you know, really humbled and thrilled to be part of the institution as we kind of look at that history, especially as we’re now launching the 25th celebration. of Copper Mountain College. Starting with the foundation dinner here in June, we’re starting an entire year of celebration. That will carry us all the way through the end of next year. And so as we look forward, we’re also going to be looking backward. And I’m really excited about that particular item. Coming out of that presentation was one piece of trivia that I’m going to just leave with you all. I expect that folks know perhaps where McDonald Hall is, but I encourage you to find out how McDonald Hall became McDonald Hall.
So, moving on to a couple of other things. On Tuesday, 4/22, which is this next week at 2 pm, we’ve got the joint meeting with Morongo Unified. There’s going to be several presentations, several updates presented there, and then we’re actually going to be having both boards act specifically around the renewed CCAP agreement, and so we’re looking forward to that particular item.
And then a couple of other highlights that I wanted to bring from the meeting last week. One, the second reading of board policy 3415, which is immigration enforcement. This strictly states that the college will have an administrative policy associated with this. And what I want to remind folks, the big thing is that California law enforcement cannot by state statute enforce any immigration requirements. And that is something that the. County Sheriff for San Bernardino has affirmed and all of California. And so really this particular immigration enforcement board policy really just goes to ensure that we know how to comply if there’s ever a situation where federal law enforcement attempts to serve a warrant on campus.
We welcomed several new employees in the consent items and those will all be formally introduced next month. But the board also did accept the retirement of Steve Parkin. And I wanted to just, you know, give a quick shout out to Steve who has been a longtime faculty member here battling some health challenges. We’re hoping to celebrate him and other retirees next month, but it was definitely with regret that the board accepted his retirement.
The other thing that I wanted to highlight and just make sure that everybody is aware of is that Dr. Alma Correa is going to be returning to Copper Mountain College as our Interim Dean of Planning, Research, and Institutional Effectiveness. Most of you may remember Alma. She was here about a year and a half, two years ago and had been with us for about three before that. She went to go explore a few other things and graciously is coming back to us to help, obviously. the work that we continue to need to be done in that space, but also just brings a pile of her expertise. We did move then from the general meeting into the study session, and the study session was specifically about kinds of goals and goal feedback both on the board and myself for 24-25. but also as we look forward to setting goals for 25-26.
Earlier today, I shared with the campus the progress report that I provided to the board last week as we move towards kind of the next steps. So what I want to just quickly mention is that this was a study session where the board did collect some feedback from constituents of the college. In July, the minutes from that meeting will be considered along with any other comments or feedback that are received in July as the board drafts both their goals and my goals. Which will then go through a constituent feedback process. So in July, as I mentioned, they will draft those goals for both themselves and for me. It will then go for circulation with a first read in August and then ultimately an adoption in September. So even once we get going in the summer, there will be an opportunity to gather additional feedback for those of you who may want to help the board inform goals. So with that, that’s about it. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Trustees is on May 8th, 2025. And we’re going to be smack dab in the middle of graduation season. So I’m looking forward to that and hope you all are as well. Have a great day.